Following an extended illness, Dr. Harry Butowsky, formerly with the National Park Service History Division, passed away May 6 at his home in Reston, Virginia. He was 78.

Until his retirement in 2012, Harry’s career spanned a remarkable 35 years devoted to saving and interpreting the nation’s past. No less remarkable, his love of history imbued his private life, notably a research website praised nationwide. Nor were his friends in the least surprised. The late Edwin C. Bearss, in a standout testimonial, credits Harry with the spirit needed to make the History Division a success.

In 1981, Bearss elaborated, as the Park Service recruited for the position of Chief Historian, “it remained empty, and I might never have made a move toward it if it hadn’t been for Harry Butowsky.” Himself but three years with the History Division at the time, Harry promised Bearss all the administrative help he needed. Moreover, it was a promise Harry kept. “Hire the best,” Bearss advised, and Harry never wavered, confident that excellent leaders come from pursuing excellence, and that Bearss would make the Division proud.

Edwin C Bearss (June 26, 1923 – September 15, 2020), takes a moment from his 96th birthday party in Arlington, Virginia, to reminisce with his dear friend and former colleague Harry Butowsky “To the practical historians of the National Park Service, stay in the field,” Bearss advised “Walk the ground and know it” Here were two that knew it well/Butowsky Family

It was only natural to think that, Harry responded modestly, having grown up in the shadow of World War II. Born August 5, 1944, in Philadelphia, the so-called World War II generation was everywhere present—and its values present, too. Personal accounts of the war moved him deeply. Only the day before his birth, Anne Frank was betrayed and captured in Amsterdam, Holland, then sent to Auschwitz before dying in Bergen-Belsen. Stories like that made history real. By high school, interspersed with working in his father’s store, Harry was reading widely in military history from the American Revolution to World War II.

On graduating from Central High School in West Philadelphia, he naturally picked history as his college major, earning his B.A. from Penn State University in 1966. Within a year he had his M.A. from the University of Illinois, and decided to stay on for a Ph.D. There he also met his bride, Lois, whom he married in 1971.

Inevitably, now juggling family life and graduate school, reality intervened, motivating his return east for a three-year appointment at Monmouth College (now University) in New Jersey. “I should have picked a simpler topic for my dissertation,” he later confessed. No doubt, further bogged down by books in German script, he had taken on an enormous load. Fortunately, his efforts did not go unnoticed. His dissertation, Leopold von Ranke and the Jewish Question, remains a critically important study speaking to the causes of World War II and the Holocaust, complementing, in addition to military history, Russian History, Jewish History, German History, the Holocaust, and the history of Eastern Europe.

Harry’s World War II history, I Survived: My Name is Yitzkhak (2015), brought immediate praise from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, as an outstanding contribution to Jewish history. A frequent guest of the museum to speak and sign his book, Harry further relished meeting and talking to visitors. No doubt, before this day in the gift shop ended, Harry had either been talked out, or sold out, or both/Butowsky Family

No matter, after finishing his Ph.D. in 1975 Harry found his prospects bleak. “Like everyone else with a doctorate in history I thought I would continue to teach, but the economy had other ideas.” Monmouth College would advance to university status without him. His only choice was to apply wherever he heard the word history, and in 1977, to the Middle-Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service in Philadelphia. The opportunity there was to write, a remembered opportunity, as it turned out, leading to his first major Park Service study: “Appomattox Manor-City Point: A History.” It proved the stepping-stone that launched his career, allowing his transfer in 1978 to a permanent position with the History Division in Washington, D.C.

“I was so thankful to have a job in history,” he recalled. Best of all, it turned out to be a job he loved. The Chief Historian at the time, Harry W. Pfanz, was a military historian and combat veteran—as was Pfanz’s successor, Ed Bearss.

“The work was intense, but fun,” Harry recalled. “We knew we were doing important work.”

It is little wonder, on Pfanz’s retirement, that Harry threw his support to Bearss, a Marine veteran of the Pacific Theater in World War II. Pinned down by a Japanese machine gun on New Britain—“Suicide Creek,” as the battle was called—Bearss had survived four wounds and two years of convalescence. It forever sealed Harry’s respect for combat veterans, in his opinion heroes all.

His private histories were similarly inspired by what people in the war had overcome. His last book, I Survived: My Name is Yitzkhak (2015), tells the story of Yitzkhak Neiman, a Polish Jew. After surviving the collapse of the Polish army in 1939, Yitzkhak escaped east, and by 1942, his cunning tested to the limit, was serving in the Russian army. It was a post no less fraught with danger and still little chance of surviving the war.

Of course, most of Europe’s Jews did not survive, including most of Yitzkhak’s family, making his story all the more valuable to historians. Harry was especially proud, having personally intervened to save and chronicle it, of his standing invitation from the Holocaust Museum in downtown Washington to give talks and sign copies of the book for visitors. As an added tribute, in 2016 fellow historians and academics named it the best biography of the year by a small independent publisher.

In one of his proudest moments, Harry (right) was invited to be the guest speaker on Memorial Day, 1995, at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It proved one of several such invitations. He is flanked by Chief Historian Daniel Martinez, with all due credit to Harry’s research, undoubtedly the most recognized media expert on the attack of December 7, 1941/Butowsky Family

Harry’s favorite Park Service studies included his four-volume history of the Man in Space Program, a study of Pacific Theater warships in World War II, and the U.S. Constitution, the latter of which, along with his advocacy, led to the establishment of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. Known as Landmark Theme Studies, Harry did six in all while contributing to several others.

It stands as an amazing record, given the amount of research involved, to say nothing of the time needed for writing. “Ed Bearss allowed us just six months per volume, but we did it.” Nor did anyone in the office—least of all Harry—complain.

He still missed teaching, and to everyone’s amazement, also found time for that throughout his tenure in Washington, retiring in 2018 from George Mason University as adjunct professor, a record totaling 38 years. His principal courses on World War II were both fully subscribed and taught with distinction, his students confirmed. “Of course, I piqued their interest by inviting veterans to speak," Harry said. "How could they not like classes that made history come alive?”

Even then, Harry had saved the best for last. Retirement? What retirement? His one disappointment, citing budgetary constraints, was that the Park Service had never seemed to want the NPS History eLibrary website he had created and managed. Now he could devote his time to a private website. Thus was born npshistory.com, containing, in his words, “upwards of 50,000 NPS reports, individual park reports, nature notes, magazine runs, pamphlets, brochures, and books that are now available for anyone to use free of charge. It is by far the largest private website for NPS material and is used by NPS personnel, college professors, students, and the general public, averaging 130,000 unique visitors a month.” The national parks of Canada are similarly covered.

Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra (second from left) welcomed Harry (right) and his team to Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of Harry’s Man in Space study. In the early 1980s, preservation of the Cape Canaveral complex and Saturn V rocket (Apollo Program) consumed much of Harry’s time/Butowsky Family

Harry’s co-founder on the site, Randy Payne, minces no words: “It is an incredible legacy—beyond imagining, really. Who would have thought, on being told no by the Park Service, that Harry would persevere?” Another of his favorite pastimes, writing for the National Parks Traveler, promised to “keep me on my toes,” as he put it. By that, he meant still more articles upholding the qualities of the National Park System and how it should be managed.

Harry is survived by his wife Lois (Jacobs) of 51 years, son Edward, and daughter Karen, two grand cats, Neptune & Luna, and countless friends, students, and grateful colleagues, who yes, use his website every day.

Harry was preceded in death by his father Edward, mother Nettie, sister Frances, a baby son, many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Among colleagues, he would reserve special mention for Ed Bearss, Bob Utley, Harry Pfanz, Dick Sellars, Ted Sudia, and Gordon Chappell.

Rest in peace, Harry. As the plaque honoring Stephen T. Mather reads, there will never come an end to the good that you have done. Mather helped found the National Park Service; you and your colleagues ensured it would last, and we do hope, further honoring your wishes, that all of you are together again.

           Alfred Runte
from National Parks Traveler, May 28, 2023

I first started collaborating with Harry in December 1999. At the time I was volunteering as a Web developer for the parks in the Pacific Northwest. Part of my duties were to digitize documents: administrative histories, Nature Notes for Crater Lake and Mount Rainier National Parks. Harry spotted this growing online body of digital documents and contacted June Jones, the NPS regional Web coordinator to see how she was getting these documents converted to the Web. June connected the two of us and Harry asked if I'd be willing to convert The Origin and Evolution of the National Military Park Idea by Ronald (Ronnie) Lee for him — this digital document became my first contribution of what would eventually become the NPS History eLibrary.

Back in the day, the Internet was still in its infancy — most people used dial-up networking; files I shared with Harry were loaded onto floppy diskettes and shipped via the mail — all pretty primitive by today's standards. But it worked and the NPS History eLibrary slowly grew. And it grew because Harry strongly felt that access to information, particularly easy access to information, was critical for both the operations of our parks but also to enhance visitor understanding of our protected places. Paper documents on shelves in the Harpers Ferry Library or park libraries were generally not accessible to the public nor conveniently accessible to NPS employees. Harry saw that a digital revolution was about to happen and access to digital documents was an essential component of that revolution. He shared those views in an article he wrote for The George Wright Forum:

Managing the National Park Service in the Information Age
Harry Butowsky, extract from The George Wright Forum, Vol. 27 No. 3, 2010

When Harry retired in 2012, he knew we had only scratched the surface in scanning the vast amount of materials which the National Park Service had produced in its nearly 100 year history, and he had hoped that collaboration would continue with us as NPS volunteers working with his replacement. Sadly, his position was never backfilled, but he felt every bit as strongly that this was a job which was far from complete and needed to be continued. Thus, NPSHistory.com was born — as an independent collaboration, Harry and I would have the opportunity to continue what began in 1999 by building upon what we started with the NPS History eLibrary and taking this new digital library and archive to the next level by providing a more varied range of NPS materials and, hopefully, reaching a much wider audience.

This October will mark the 10th anniversary of NPSHistory.com. Sadly my friend and fellow collaborator will not be around to celebrate this milestone, but we have Harry to thank for perserving in making this a resource which we hope has proven useful and informative as a tribute to "North America's Best Idea".

It has been said: "One person can make a difference and everyone should try". Harry MADE a difference because he WAS willing to try. It has been both a pleasure, and an honor, to have gotten to know and work with Harry over these 20+ years. His job is not yet finished — his dream not fully realized — his legacy WILL remain — as well as a commitment to continue expanding this library and archive "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people".

           Randall D. Payne
Co-creator NPSHistory.com/ParksCanadaHistory.com

Harry Butowsky was born in Philadelphia, PA, on August 5, 1944, the day following the raid on Anne Frank’s House in Amsterdam, and as patriotic anthems filled the Homefront city streets.

Harry grew up in West Philadelphia, recalling an idyllic if not scrappy and rambunctious childhood, and then Northeast Philadelphia. Harry began working after school and on weekends at his parents’ store, a chore he loathed at first, but recalled of fondly in his later life. He traced much of his ability to and love for connecting with others to this experience.

Harry graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, PA, in 1962, and earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Penn State in 1966. He attended the University of Illinois at Champlain-Urbana for his graduate studies, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in German Jewish History in 1975. At the University of Illinois, he met Lois Jacobs, whom he married in 1971.

In 1971, Harry and Lois moved to New Jersey and Harry began teaching at Monmouth College (now University) in West Long Branch, NJ. While there, their son, Edward, was born on June 5, 1974. In 1977, Harry began his career in federal service with the National Park Service (NPS) in Philadelphia, transferring to their headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1978. The family settled in nearby Reston, VA. Their daughter, Karen, was born on September 21, 1981.

During his tenure with the NPS, Harry worked to preserve our Nation’s most significant historical artifacts, including the Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, AL, several WWII ships that served in the Pacific, and the school involved in the 1954 Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Harry also taught history at George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College, delivering courses on American History, History of the American Space Program, History of WWII in the Pacific and in Europe, and the History of WWI.

Later in his NPS career, Harry managed the National Park Service History Division’s web page.

Harry also began lecturing and delivering public interest programming on topics ranging from WWII to the U.S. Constitution at the Rust Library in Leesburg, VA, and the Reston Regional Library in Reston, VA. Harry also began a cherished collaboration with Ralph Minker and his wife, Sandra O’Connell, curating the letters Ralph and his family wrote to one other when Ralph was serving in the 8th Air Force in Europe during WWII. The book, “An American Family During WWII,” was published in 2005.

After 35 years of service, Harry retired from the NPS in 2012. In his retirement, he continued to pursue his lifelong passion for teaching and writing. In 2015, he published “I Survived, My Name is Yitzkhak,” an oral history of Mr. Yitzkhak Neiman, a Polish Jew who served in the Russian army during WWII, whom Harry had interviewed in the mid-1970s.

After his retirement, Harry and his co-collaborator Randy Payne established the awarding winning NPShistory.com and ParksCanadaHistory.com websites, electronic collections of thousands of public domain documents relating to the history of the NPS, other U.S. Department of Interior components, and Parks Canada.

Harry was an incredible intellect, individual, and storyteller. He was also generous and giving, almost to a fault. During his life, he was a witness and observer to the best and worst of the human condition.

Harry passed away peacefully at his home the early morning of Saturday, May 6, 2023.

Harry is survived by his wife (Lois Jacobs) of 51 years, his son (Edward), his daughter (Karen), his two grand cats (Neptune & Luna), and many friends, students, and mentees.

Harry is preceded in death by his father (Edward), mother (Nettie), sister (Frances), a baby son, many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and countless friends.

Harry will be buried at Cool Springs Natural Cemetery, in Berryville, VA, at 2pm on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The family is also planning a more celebratory event in the weeks ahead. Details are forthcoming.

           Butowsky family, May 2023